If you back up your WhatsApp conversations to your Google account Drive on Android, it’s important to be aware of your storage situation. In 2018, WhatsApp and Google announced that you can save your WhatsApp chat history to Drive without it affecting your storage quota. However, starting in December 2023, backing up the messaging app to Drive will count towards your Google account cloud storage space if you’re a WhatsApp beta user. If you don’t use the beta version, you won’t be affected until next year when the policy change gradually rolls out to all Android devices.
Personal Google accounts come with 15GB of free cloud storage shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. Google points out that this is “three times more than most mobile platforms.” However, it’s still possible to exceed 15GB, depending on how many files and photos you’ve backed up and uploaded.
Google has also provided storage management tools to help users remove large files or photos they no longer need. It’s also possible to delete items from within WhatsApp so they won’t be included in your next backup. Additionally, users have the option to purchase additional storage with Google One, starting at $2 a month for 100GB. The company will also be offering limited, one-time Google One promotions to eligible users soon, so it may be worthwhile to wait for those before getting a subscription.
It’s important to note that this change only affects personal account backups. If you have a Workspace account through your job or another organization, you don’t need to worry about WhatsApp taking up a portion of your cloud storage space.
